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Monday, December 5, 2011

Cinnamon Pull-a-parts

Update 2-6-2014: I recently visited a site that I have this recipe listed. I was a bit concerned with some of the comments suggesting the recipe did not work. Well, I am here to say that it does. I made a fresh batch today and the recipe is spot on. I don't know why some have had a difficult time getting this to work. With that said, please keep in mind that we all cook differently, with a different skill set and different available ingredients. Here is a picture of the batch I made this morning: This picture has the full 2 cups of sugar and cinnamon (I noted below that the other pictures were made with half of this).

I will add that they are best fresh! If they sit, they will get a bit firm but they can be microwaved for a few seconds to soften again. Do not over bake them.

The recipe also works well to halve the ingredients to make one pie plate.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

What is a pull-a-part? It's a goofy name you give to something that doesn't fit the title of Monkey Bread or Cinnamon Rolls…LOL

Yesterday, I woke up thinking I needed something warm, gooey and doughy. My kids have been asking for Monkey Bread for..well…EVER. I keep forgetting to buy a Bundt pan and so I thought that maybe I could use a large Stoneware bowl that I own and put something in the middle, like a canning jar, and create my own Bundt pan. WRONG. I don't own any canning jars either. I know, right, what is wrong with this woman who professes to be a cook and is missing two important things in her kitchen…LOL This week that will be fixed. PROMISE.

So I did the next best thing, and decided that I would take a moment and create something that tasted the same as a cinnamon roll and pulled apart similar to Monkey Bread. I will have to admit the Monkey Bread and all of it's gooey-ness is what I was craving but I endured the tasting and sampling of the pull-a-parts and did just fine.

I have been wanting to try my roll recipe that can be made in under an hour for this type of recipe. I don't believe that one bread recipe is good for all things, but when your in a hurry and time is of the essence, I think this particular recipe worked great for rolls and cinnamon pull-a-parts. It was airy, light, fluffy, and yet, dense enough to hold its shape to be pulled apart. That was a good thing.

The next time I make these I will experiment more with adding cinnamon and sugar with a freer hand. I was a little bit stingy because I did not want to over do it with the sugar. I could have used 3x's as much and had them taste "really, really" cinnamony (is this a word?…lol) That is next time though. Yes, we will make these again because my family devoured them in no time. I love surprising my family with these types of Sunday mornings. Cooking is fun because I have a captive audience and they always make me feel like I know what I am doing, even if some of the time I am flying by the seat of my pants…like a monkey.

Recipe: Cinnamon Pull-a-parts

Makes two 10 inch pie plates full of cinnamon balls

1/3 cup of sugar2 T. yeast2 cups of warm water2 tsp. salt6 eggs6-8 cups of flour (the dough should pull from the bowl and knead without sticking)2 stick of butter1-2 cups of cinnamon/sugar mixture ( I used a cup, but if you like a lot of cinnamon/sugar…add more) To make the cinnamon-sugar mixture for each cup of sugar I would add 2 tablespoons of cinnamon.1. Heat your oven to 400. Preheat pans in oven while dough is rising. Stoneware and glass pans work great.2. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring device, add sugar and yeast to the warm water. Let set for 5 minutes until frothy.3. In a LARGE bowl or large mixer, add your salt, eggs and water/yeast mixture. Mix together. Slowly start adding your 6-8 cups of flour. The dough should pull away from the side of your bowl and combine all the ingredients together well. Knead for 3 minutes.4. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Melt 1 stick of butter in a small bowl. Combine sugar and cinnamon.

5. Take preheated pans out of the oven and melt 4 T. of butter in each. Sprinkle a 1/2 cup of cinnamon sugar on the bottom of the pan. Start pinching of sections of dough and rolling them into a ball. Coat each ball with melted butter and then the sugar and cinnamon mixture.6. Place each ball in the pan close to each other. The heat from the pan will cause the dough to start rising. Place your pan in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. The rolls should be golden brown on top.

**NOTE: My dough sections when rolled, where the size of walnuts and this made for a 3.5 inch raised pull-a-part. If you would like them to not be so tall, then make your rolled dough pieces smaller. This may alter the cooking time a bit so keep an eye on them while they cook.

I served the pull-a-parts with a simple cream cheese frosting.

In a small bowl, I mixed equal parts butter and cream cheese, added a touch of vanilla. With the powdered sugar, I continued to add enough until the consistency and flavor was what I wanted. I have a small whip that comes in handy for this task. ENJOY!

I am alot lazier than most and have found that buying canned small biscuits and making balls out of them taste pretty dang good vs using yeast amd all other such ingredients I am not talented enough to use or have enough time to prepare. Try it! They're very tasty!!

I am lazier... and this will work for me... I think canned are just as good as home made when drowned in butter and sugar with cinnamon.. on my way to the store NOW~ thanks Lacy for making me want to make these..

I have always made these with canned biscuits, too... but instead of rolling the dough into balls and risking making the dough tough, I cut the canned biscuits into quarters, and coat them in a zipper plastic bag with the sugar & cinnamon. When the kids were small, they loved shaking the baggie to coat half a dozen pieces at a time. I add the melted butter last, atop the quarters arranged in about a double layer... I used a greased metal or glass pan, and sprinkle the extra sugar & cinnamon mixture evenly on top before baking. Four packages of basic biscuits, plain or buttermilk, generic is fine... fills a 9 x 13 baking pan, and my kids always loved pulling apart sections to munch on!! I certainly never had time to make dough and wait for it to rise, knead it, divide into balls, dip into melted butter, etc. We never bothered with icing! Because of the smaller pieces, there was plenty of buttery sugar & cinnamon on each piece, and very little dry roll in the center. Sorry for posting anonymously, but I don't have other accounts. ~~ Runeshadow

Like others I use canned biscuits (if I am in a hurry) or from scratch biscuits dough. One thing if you are taking them to a party, use cupcake/muffin pans to bake these in. With the flu viruses going around, people seems to like to be able to take these off the plate with small tongs and not have to worry about other people's germs. Its also nice for portion control .